Silent Carnage
by Traitor of All Traitors
Summary: Gwen Stacy of the Ultimate Marvel universe, so pretty, so bold, so graceful. The last day of her life that needn't end the way it had. What if, by some stroke of faith, Peter, as Spider-Man, was there to save her from Carnage? What if Gwen lived?


Creation began on 07-18-11

Creation ended on 07-22-14

Ultimate Spider-Man

Silent Carnage

A/N: I've looked at volume eleven of the _Ultimate Spider-Man _comics time and again and realized that I hate what the creators did to Gwen Stacy. I mean, she knows Peter's Spider-Man and keeps the secret, makes her peace with Mary Jane, has a great father that was willing to die in the line of duty for the greater good, not that I can say that Gwen's mother was a nice piece of work, and the people just go and kill her off! It's disgracing! But it's also the beauty of what-if scenarios, and here's one: What if Peter was actually on his way home before Gwen has her encounter with Carnage, the genetic crossbreed of the _Ultimate_ series? Let's find out.

He was in his costume, web-swinging his way home. Today had been another good day. The crime was down, work was good, and the minor pay was sufficient enough to get by from the Daily Bugle. Yep, he didn't have much of a care in the world. Now leaping across rooftops toward his house, he spotted Gwen arriving home, but saw her go to the back of the house.

_Did she leave her keys home again?_ He wondered, stopping on the roof across the street from the Parker house.

"Aaaurgh!" He heard a scream.

_Oh, no!_ He leaped onto the ground and ran toward the back of the house, spotting Gwen backing away from…some sort of creature: It was reddish-orange, had claws and reminded him of the time when he fought Eddie in the black suit that was slowly consuming him. _Gwen!_

The creature shot several tentacle-like appendages at Gwen and started to lift her off her legs. That was when Spider-Man shot his webs at Gwen and yanked her free from the tentacles.

"I don't think so!" He told the creature.

"Thanks!" Gwen praised him. "What is that thing?"

The creature then leapt up at them and Spider-Man evaded, web-swinging away from the neighborhood with the creature following them, imitating the web-head.

Peter swung Gwen across streets until they were in the city limits, the creature still chasing them…until it stopped and swung down to the streets.

"Oh, my God!" Gwen gasped, seeing that the creature had slammed down atop a car and shot its tentacles at two of the civilians nearest to itself.

The creature's victims started screaming as their flesh withered down to the texture of an emaciated corpse; they were sucked dry of their organs and fluids by the creature, which began to shift its own appearance: It almost looked like yellow-orange version of Peter himself.

"Whoa," Gwen realized.

Peter landed atop a nearby building's roof and set Gwen down.

The creature that resembled Peter looked their way and leapt into the air, its eyes singling out the young man.

-x-

Curt Conners, after discovering several emaciated bodies around the lab where his latest experiment was being held, ran as fast as he could to the Parker house to warn Peter that what he was trying to do might be after him. He couldn't believe that, after just asking him if he could run several tests on his blood, his current work had run amok and was loose upon the world.

By the time he made it to the house, Peter and Gwen were already stepping in.

"Peter!" He called out to him.

Peter turned to face him, looking like he'd been to Hell and back again.

"What did you do?" He asked the scientist. "What did you do?"

Conners explained what had happened, leaving out none of the details, revealing that by splicing together his DNA with Peter's, along with some residual information about the Venom Project, he created a self-regenerative organism…and it somehow got loose and started killing people.

"We saw it," went Gwen, revealing that they had encountered the creature that almost killed her.

When Gwen went inside to keep Aunt May occupied, Peter explained what had become of the creature.

"It's gone," he told Conners. "I led it to a smokestack and threw it into the furnace. It burned to nothingness. It was made from nothingness."

After being informed that the creature had almost killed Gwen when it showed up at his house, Conners realized that he had crossed a very sensitive line between the civilians and the ones Peter kept closest to his heart. As much as he wanted to do work that benefited mankind, he knew that if anything had happened to Gwen, May Parker or anyone else Peter did everything in his power to protect, he would've been on the greater receiving end of a spider punch.

-x-

"…Peter?" Gwen questioned, finding him the basement, looking at his costume. "What are you doing down here?"

He turned his head around to face her, and then turned back to his costume and responded, "Nothing."

"You're thinking of giving it up?"

"Huh?"

"Spider-Man. You're thinking of stopping, aren't you?"

"I…"

"Don't."

"What?"

"Don't stop being Spider-Man. You shouldn't."

"Gwen, you almost died tonight. That thing, it had to be looking for me; it's the only logical explanation for why it was here earlier. Conners, he had asked me if he could run tests on my blood…and I let him. I let him, and people died from his work. You almost died."

Gwen sighed and expressed, "You didn't know what he was going to do with your blood. What happened today wasn't your fault. And you saved me. You stopped it before it killed anyone else."

"But there's no guarantee that I won't be able to save you the next time something like this happens," Peter told her.

"Regardless, it wouldn't be your fault. Yes, there's no guarantee that I won't avoid a similar calamity the next time, but there's no guarantee that I will avoid it, just as there's no guarantee that the next bad guy you face will have something to do with you. We can't see everything and can't tell what will happen when we do something. All we can do…is our best to live through each day and hope to see the next day."

As she left him to be by himself, the boy that had been granted his powers by a spider bite, stopped her.

"Gwen," he spoke up. "Thanks."

"Any time."

Peter then put up his costume, taking Gwen's words to heart. There was truly no guarantee that he would've been able to save anyone's life any time there was a villain that was nearby or anything beyond his control. As much as he wanted to keep those closest to him safe from harm, it was impossible…and somewhat hopeless. All he could do…was his best.

-x-

Conners, after what happened, turned himself and his research over to the police; he was directly responsible for the deaths of the people killed by his creation. It was his hope that such a horror, despite whatever benefits his research might've yielded, was never repeated again.

A/N: Well, that's it. Over two years, and I finally found the time to complete this. It doesn't seem like anyone writes any scenarios where a particular individual is, by some miracle or act of the gods, able to avoid disaster and death. Read, review, follow or favor. Peace.


End file.
